Overview

Camp Merz has over 85 years young this year, and located to the south of Mayville on beautiful Chautauqua Lake. 350 acres of beautiful hardwood forest and evergreens welcome your scouting experience.

Our waterfront boasts over One Thousand Feet of private camp shoreline on the lake, providing opportunities for fishing, swimming, rowing, canoeing, motor-boating, sailing, water-skiing, kayaking and paddle boarding. Lake Chautauqua itself is over 17 miles long, 13,000 acres, and has over 42 miles of shoreline.

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Our shooting sports ranges offer skeet shooting in addition to 22’s and black powder. Bowtrap is a feature at the Archery Center, it’s kind of like skeet archery that is sure to challenge your Scouts.

The scenic views around the lake & along the Portage Trail are just great. Would you believe our campers sometimes come back JUST FOR THE FOOD?

We are about two miles away from the Chautauqua Institution, & 20 minutes from the new National Comedy Center in Jamestown, as well as many other attractions around the Chautauqua Region.

History

Camp Merz was so named in honor of Frank Merz's generous donation to the council and the Boy Scouts of Chautauqua County.

Banker Frank Merz (1857 - 1939) funded and donated Camp Merz, located in Mayville, New York, to Boy Scouts of America in 1933. The foremost banker of his era in Jamestown, New York, Merz held the position of President of the Union Trust Company, then one of the soundest banks of Western New York. Providing funds necessary to purchase a 300-acre parcel of ground that fronts on Chautauqua Lake,

Merz aspired to do for young boys what was not done for him in his youth. Merz made the property suitable for camping, constructing a well for drinking water, a dining hall, and an administration building.